Super Kid: Lauren Nguyen, Edmonds-Woodway High

A: I’ve volunteered at the Seattle Aquarium for a little over a year now. It’s nice to have experience in a science field, because I’m thinking of going into science for school (college).

It’s good to get different perspectives on science. I didn’t know anything about marine biology before going into it.

I play softball and I swam in the fall. I’m in student leadership, I’m the vice president of my class, and I was in leadership last year. It’s been fun. We’re planning prom right now.

I’m in a thing called peer mediation. It’s something new. When students have a dispute that might have them sent to the dean, instead of going to the dean they can come to peer mediators. We provide a room for them and allow them to just work out their discussion without having suspension or punishment, and so they’re able to work it out between each other.

That’s been nice, not only for others, but for me to reflect on my own issues and how to work out my own issues at home with my parents. The training was a full day thing where we watched videos and did simulations of what to do.

I am also in DECA (Distributive Education Clubs of America). It’s basically a marketing club. I don’t necessarily want to study business or have a career in business, but I need to have those skills.

I’m also in Teen Leadership Council. We create volunteer events to make volunteering more accessible to teens and more fun. We have projects all year, and we have one main event in the spring, and my partner and I are fundraising for the YWCA. They really need hygiene items, it’s where victims of domestic violence go with their children.

I work at Papa Murphy’s, and I’ve been there for a year now. It’s just a weekend thing so I can pay for gas and go out and buy food. It’s a lot of fun, I really like that.

I’m in the International Baccalaureate program and the National Honor Society.

Q: What’s your GPA?

A: I have a 4.0.

Q: So you’ve never had anything less than a 4.0 in high school?

A: Not on a report card.

Q: What’s your favorite subject?

A: Even though I’m not the strongest in the sciences it’s the subject I’m most interested in, so I have to work harder in those subjects, but I enjoy them more, because I find them interesting.

I want to be a pediatrician, as of right now. I might find out I want to specialize, I’m not sure if I want to do family practitioning.

In the summer I went to a muscular dystrophy camp. That really inspired me more to want to go into the field of medicine, because I got to work with kids and literally helped them go to the bathroom, or take a shower, or put on their clothes.

That was a really rewarding experience. It was really eye-opening, and I gained a lot from that. The career path is more set for me.

Q: Where might you go to college?

A: I applied to a lot of small liberal arts schools, including Swarthmore (Pennsylvania) and Pomona (California). There were a lot of them. The only in-state one I applied to was the UW. I’d love to be in their honors program.

To think I could have that kind of learning all the time in college would be fantastic. I fell in love with the theory of knowledge class (in International Baccalaureate). I don’t want that kind of learning to stop in college.